Man to walk on 17-metre stilts

An Australian carnival performer will attempt to break the world record for stilt walking when he gets onto 17-metre stilts from the top of a spiral tower in Adelaide today.

Roy Maloy will attempt to walk on the tallest stilts ever made - exceeding the height of an average four-storey building.

He has been through a rigorous training regime, and also holds the Australian record for a much shorter five metres.

Mr Maloy says it's been a huge logistical challenge.

"To build the tallest stilts ever it's not just one piece of wood which I made the Australian record stilts out of, you need to make them out of three pieces of very light weight aluminium that are all welded together like a scaffold," he said.

"It's got to be extremely strong and extremely light because we're talking about in that length nearly 30 kilos per leg."